Black Art
by sweetstache
Summary: Hell hath no fury like a sugar deprived Kio.


**Title:**** Black Art**  
**Fandom:** Loveless  
**Pairing:** Kio/lollipops  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Rating:** G  
**Word count:** 1270  
**Summary:** Hell hath no fury like a sugar-deprived Kio.

**A/N:** I must have gotten a little carried away with this - it was never intended to go beyond a thousand words.

* * *

Pencil scratched furiously across paper as a lone figure sat working in the brightly-lit studio, his shadow stark against the whitewashed wall in front of him. Paints, palettes and brushes littered one side of the room, where they had been left in an arrangement that was haphazard at best, and in another corner dust was slowly gathering on the surface of bare sheets draped over unfinished works. The air was still, enveloped in frigid silence.

On the sketchpad, sharp strokes of black intersected and overlapped under the rapid movements of an impatient hand. The portrait was nearly complete.

Abruptly the art student threw down his pencil, let out a vexed groan and pushed himself to his feet. He took a moment to stretch his shoulders, kneading the back of his neck in hope of relieving some of the tension there, but he was painfully aware that something was missing, that without it there was no way he could finish the drawing. He began pacing the room.

This was infuriating. Kio raked his fingers through his disheveled hair and sighed heavily. Oh, what would he not give for a lollipop to simply materialize out of thin air right in front of him!

With another deep sigh, he sank back down on the floor, sucking the tasteless end of a wooden brush.

He was sulking, he knew. Kio swore under his breath, cursing the man responsible for his current state of misery. _Bloody Soubi!_ Kio never thought he would ever be less than happy to see his friend in his apartment, but then again, he had never expected Soubi to turn into a house-raiding Chupa-thief, either.

Kio had returned home to find Soubi ransacking his kitchen, pulling open drawers and rummaging through cupboards. He remembered vaguely wondering why Soubi had jumped upon seeing him, as though caught red-handed in the middle of a crime, but then any initial suspicion he might have had were utterly dispelled once his eyes fell upon what lay on the counter.

It was a large container filled to the brim with colorfully wrapped lollipops.

"Sou-chan!" Kio gasped in childish delight, before leaping onto his friend from behind and grabbing him in a bone-crushing hug. He would have kissed him, too, if Soubi had not reacted so quickly and shoved him away.

Grinning, Kio rubbed his palms together and eagerly turned to the box of lollipops. "For me, eh? Aw, that's so sweet! Sou-chan, you can be such a darling sometim—"

"They're yours, Kio."

"Yeah, thanks! I can't believe this, a present from you—"

"Kio," Soubi interrupted quietly. "They're _yours_."

Kio immediately froze, the lollipop slipping from his hand and dropping to the floor. Cold disappointment washed over him, but it was almost at once replaced by a wave of fear. Slowly he pivoted around to face Soubi, his voice reduced to a bare whisper. "Mine?"

There was no reply from Soubi, merely a small sigh as he bent down to retrieve the lollipop. He stiffened when Kio reached one hand out and gently touched his shoulder.

"Sou-chan… why would you do this to me?"

Straightening up, Soubi looked directly at him, firmly pushing his hand away. "Kio, you heard what the dentist said."

"But—"

"Kio."

Soubi was a tough nut to crack, but Kio was not intending to give up so easily. Changing tack, he decided to try whining.

"It_hurts_!" He cried, then threw in a tearful moan for good measure. Putting his palm to his slightly swollen cheek, he turned to Soubi, sticking out his bottom lip just a little. "A Chupa will make it better."

Kio thought his normally endearing self had looked pretty damn irresistible when he had done that, but Soubi did not even blink. With a rather pained look he replied, "Kio, a lollipop will not make your toothache better."

And in spite of his best efforts, no amount of begging or whining or pouting could get Kio his dear lollipops back.

It was when Soubi took the box of sweets from the counter and strode towards the rubbish bin that Kio truly panicked.

"Wait! Those are my precious, life-sustaining Chupas! They're my miracle workers! They're my oxygen!" Kio's words came out in frantic shouts as he ran after Soubi, desperately latching on to his arm while he attempted to snatch the lollipops from him. "_Sou-chan!_"

Exasperation was clearly evident in Soubi's voice as he fended off Kio. "If you want your toothache to go away, just be a good boy and forget Chupa sticks for a few days."

Kio ignored him, still trying to wrestle the box out of Soubi's hands. "You can't just throw them away!"

"Sorry, Kio, I'm afraid—" Soubi cut himself off abruptly and seemed to contemplate something. An instant later, however, he had apparently changed his mind, much to Kio's surprise. "I'm afraid you're right. It does seem like such a waste."

Kio narrowed his eyes warily when he saw the ghost of a smile playing on Soubi's lips.

"I'm sure Ritsuka would like these."

Perhaps it was the mention of the Aoyogi brat, or perhaps it was the fact that Soubi was getting ready to leave, but it was in that very moment that Kio lost his senses. He ran in front of his friend and flung his arms out, blocking his path. Determination burned in his eyes. "Agatsuma Soubi, you are not taking my lollipops away from me."

For some reason that seemed to amuse Soubi, for he laughed, in a way that somehow made Kio forget that he was supposed to be angry and miserable in his predicament. Soubi was laughing, freely, genuinely, without Kio having to employ any of those old and elaborate tricks, tricks that only occasionally succeeded in their intention to melt away icy resolve, if only for a second. Frustration gave way to a grudging smile, and Kio could only secretly marvel at the creation of such a precious and beautiful scene.

Not that it had changed the fact that Soubi had taken his lollipops away from him.

Who was he to deprive Kio of his daily doses of excess sugar, anyway? It wasn't like Soubi himself was ever going to quit smoking, and cigarettes were positively a hundred times more lethal than lollipops. He had no right, no right at all.

Bloody toothache. Bloody dentist. Bloody Soubi!

On a whim, Kio had seized control of a pencil with near-violent fervor and flipped open his sketchbook. Portraits were not his forte, and he also lacked his model, but neither had bothered him much as dark, confident pencil strokes broke across rough white in a certain irregularity.

In a matter of minutes, it was already almost done. Yet the fact that he was missing his trusty, artistically-inspirational lollipop gnawed persistently at the edge of his mind. Kio glanced down at the sketch, absent-mindedly running one hand through his wild curls again. Irked, he wondered if it would be like all the other abandoned pieces of artworks in the room, those that he had never quite managed to put the finishing touches on.

Suddenly a wicked thought struck his mind, and he smirked. In fact, this incomplete drawing could better serve its purpose. With careless lack of grace, Kio tore the page from his sketchpad and stuck it to the wall.

Bald, one-eyed Soubi stared back at him.

For a while Kio only glared at the picture, as though threatening it to burst into flames under the intensity of his gaze. Then he grinned, cracked his knuckles and began whacking Soubi's disfigured almost-portrait with his bedroom slipper.


End file.
